Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which processes a print job transmitted from a host computer.
Description of the Related Art
Reduction of total cost of ownership (TCO) of a printing system, which includes not only initial installation costs of a printing apparatus and a system but also costs of consumables such as printing sheets and coloring agents like toners, has recently drawn a lot of attention from viewpoints of cost reduction in the office and preservation of the global environment.
A conventional issue in such a printing system is that any person who can access a network can perform printing using a printing apparatus installed in the office. No one is restricted to printing and no trace is left, so that users often have no scruples about printing more than necessary which leads to an increase in costs in the office.
As a solution for such a conventional issue, a printing system has been discussed which has a print restriction function of restricting output per user.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-199253 discusses a printing system which obtains printing function restriction information regarding a user who performs printing from a printing apparatus every time a host computer executes printing and restricts the printing function by referring to the restriction information.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-198166 discusses an image processing apparatus which receives authentication information and job setting information for user authentication which are transmitted from a host computer, performs authentication according to the authentication information, and accordingly enables execution of a job in a range of the job setting information.
As discussed in Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open No. 2009-199253 and No. 2011-198166, there are various methods for user authentication and for obtaining print restriction information in print jobs.